Issues of physical contact taken to a logical extreme. The surprise is when someone is offered food or drink by someone they like, then realizes that swapping spit residue is similar to a kiss, albeit indirectly.

During The Hays Code era of American films, a couple smoking cigarettes together, particularly if they share one cigarette or light one with another, would suggest they were up to something more than kissing.

A form of this notion, the sharing of a drinking glass with a lover as an intimate act, appears in a treatise on romance by the Roman poet Ovid, making this Older Than Feudalism.

Examples:

This very squickful Hong Kong ad for Tempo tissue paper: a dork picks up a piece of used tissue, with a lipstick mark, from the desk of his female colleague, and treasures it like his own dear life.

This is the reason, according to the Man Law, that men must toast with the bottom of the beer bottles.

The fear of this is implied in this spark plug commercial, where the voiceover notes that "the gut knows you're gonna need two new beers" after neither man can tell which beer bottle is his after having set them down on a workbench, complete with zooming in on them nervously biting and licking their lips.

A more unique form of indirect kiss was from an actual kiss in volume 3. Kanzeon Bostatsu extracted blood from Gojyo by kissing him, then injected the blood into Sanzo by kissing him. Sanzo involuntarily slapped her. Shortly after, Gojyo joked to Sanzo, refuring to it as an indirect kiss, to which Sanzo pointed a gun at him.

Gojyo has a bad habit of losing or forgetting his lighter & will put his face right up in Sanzo's to get the burn of a prelit cigarette to ignite his own. This always annoys or embarrasses Sanzo, especially if Gojyo jokes about it like afterwards, in Saiyuki Premium.

Rurouni Kenshin has an example that foreshadows Kenshin & Kaoru's future relationship: they both drink from the same sake cup, after which Megumi slyly remarks, "It's as though they're a married couple", eliciting embarrassment from Kaoru & Kenshin's trademark flustered "Oro?".

The manga is based on this trope; the Boy is literally addicted to the Girl's sweet saliva, but they've yet to kiss — she sucks on her finger and lets him suck her drool off.

Used a little bit closer to form in chapter 59 Tsubaki kisses Urabe's photo and then lets her taste his 'drool' so she can feel how turned on he is. Then she has him do it again, and she kisses the back side of the picture, directly opposite his lips.

In Marginal #4, Tsubasa says this is why he can't bring himself to kiss the statue of Pythagoras that Atom had already kissed - thereby losing the kissing competition. The main portion of the competition was acting out a dramatic love confession scene with the statue, and Tsubasa actually did better than Atom with that, but since he couldn't top it off with a kiss, he forfeits.

Parodied (as are all things) in Excel Saga: Watanabe agonizes for some time over whether or not to sip Hyatt's tomato juice, thereby getting his first "indirect kiss". Before drinking it, however, he notes that it's overflowing. It's not all tomato juice; Hyatt presumably vomited blood into it. Later in the episode, it's revealed he was hospitalized after drinking it. Although the hospitalization probably came from all the medicine Hyatt added to it when he wasn't looking. She needs a lot of medicine, given her tendency to cough up blood and die at a moment's notice. Factor in that her medicine, once used to leave a trail behind her when she was kidnapped, was eaten by birds... and left a trail of dead birds instead.

In an episode of Hen Zemi, a show focuses on the many psychological as well as physiological aspects of sexual fetishes, Anna intentionally takes the bottle Komugi leaves and drinks from it, to observe everyone else's shocked reaction and analyze it. The only catch is, that's no bottle of fizzy drink but one that's full of Komugi's juice as Ichikawa reluctantly points out. She then rushes to the bathroom in horror of what she's just consumed, only to quickly come back later at Taguchi who's still jealous that he wasn't the one who got to indirectly kiss her and angrily jam that bottle of cum into his mouth.

Episode 19 of Kimagure Orange Road has Kyosuke and Madoka consciously sharing an indirect kiss on a deserted island. Namely, they share an apple and she chooses to eat from the portion he started from.

Black Lagoon (pictured above) between Revy and Rock — the "cigarette kiss", in which Revy chains her cigarette from Rock's after a fight between them. Hence, (indirect) kiss and (silent) make up.

Lucia in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch keeps freaking out about this sort of thing, especially in the chapter when her emotions go out of control while visiting Kaito (anime: influenced by magical item; manga: drunk), until they finally do kiss.

Tsuwabuki in Revolutionary Girl Utena ends up throwing away a chocolate bar that a girl had bitten after contemplating that eating it would count as an indirect kiss. This apparently harmless item later appears in his duel as a symbolic manisfestation of Tsuwabuki's desire to grow up.

In This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, Takeru's cousin Mari becomes mad after Hikari kisses him. Later, after some dwelling on it, Takeru raises his soda to his lips and finds it's empty, while Mari walks away with a hand on her lips, whispering about her minor victory.

In FLCL, Kitsurubami unintentionally does this with a drink she was holding for Amarao. She's horrified after she realizes what she's done.

In Dragon Half, Mink has an Accidental Kiss with Dick Saucer; later, her friend Lufa tries to get an indirect kiss with Dick Saucer by kissing Mink.

Parodied in Gakuen Heaven: keeping up the Boys Love spirit that pervades the whole series, the whole cast that consists of varying degrees of bishonen discuss who was it that used a character's toothbrush, something that would constitute an indirect kiss of the creepy kind. Did I mention that everyone is naked in one of those Hot Springs Episode type of situations? As it turns out a cat was the culprit. Of course.

In Please Twins!, a flustered Miina accepts a can of soda from her love interest Maiku, literally referring to it as an indirect kiss later on.

In one episode of Haré+Guu, Guu suddenly goes on a wild kissing spree, kissing everyone in school. One of the boys collapses in depression over the fact that he'd just indirectly kissed his male friend.

"The Melancholy of Asahina Mikuru" story of the 6th light novel. Mikuru silences Kyon's flustered, mumbled attempts to comfort her by placing her index finger on his lips. She then slowly lifted her index finger and placed it on her own lips. While neither of them outright acknowledge it as an indirect kiss, Kyon's elated reaction and his following thoughts are very much in line with the trope.

While shooting their film in "The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya", Mikuru offers Kyon water from the bottle she's been drinking from. Haruhi immediately grabs it from him. Later at the end of the arc, Haruhi drinks from the same cup as Kyon in a cafe, though it's mostly just to spite him. We never see if Haruhi had this trope in mind or not.

Kuroko becomes elated at the prospect of getting a bite of something after Mikoto and later freaks out when Mikoto and Saten innocently spoonfeed each other samples of their ice-cream. Kuroko desperately asks for equal treatment, but Mikoto refuses since Kuroko got the same kind as her.

Implied but not really dwelled upon in the related A Certain Magical Index, when Mikoto drags Touma into pretending to be her boyfriend. They both get hot dogs, and are distracted after each has taken a bite. When they turn back to their lunch, they don't know which belongs to whom. Touma doesn't care, since they both got the exact same thing, but Mikoto quietly obsesses over the idea. Attentive viewers note that each did in fact end up with the other person's hot dog.

About a year before the events of Index, Touma had given Shokuhou Misaki an emergency whistle so she could use it to call him if she needs help. She tries it out, but not before learning Touma had tested it himself. Misaki would keep the whistle as a memento.

Happened when Minorin enjoyed an indirect kiss with Takasu off her fist, after sending him out after Taiga.

Earlier, Kitamura took a bite of Taiga's crepe, thus getting an indirect kiss from her. Taiga, flustered over the prospect of eating the rest of the crepe, panicked and shoved the entire thing down Ryuuji's throat, thus giving him the indirect kiss from Kitamura.

During an episode of Kaze no Stigma, Kazuma asks Ayano to hold his canned coffee for him while he takes care of some mutant. Cue Ayano staring at the can and blushing slightly. After the fight, Kazuma asks for his coffee back - she replies that she drank it.

Though no one calls it an Indirect Kiss outright, chapter 150 shows Aika being all blushy and hesitant at taking a drink from a bottle Wataru just offered her — a bottle he just drank from. Naturally, oblivious Wataru does not understand why she'd be so fussy.

Shizuku intentionally invokes this. Asking Natsuru to pass her first the soda, then two cups. She pours into both, picks one up, but only kisses it. Then she offers it to Natsuru. The entire crew is there for this, and they all act suprised, except Natsuru himself, who tries to back away. Eventually Shizuku just does away with the indirectness.

Not to mention shortly after, when Akane considers kissing Shizuku because it would be an indirect kiss with Natsuru.

In the manga, Keitaro contemplates an indirect kiss when Narusegawa offers him her drink to wash down some pre-exam antacids.

In a later chapter, they share an indirect kiss through a human intermediary, Mutsumi, who explains that she kissed them both for this express purpose.

In Witchblade, Shiori is deeply in love with her mentor and employer, Dr. Reina Sohou, and kisses the lip print left on her teacup after the good doctor has left her office.

They Are My Noble Masters has one when Shinra gives Ren a canned beverage she'd been drinking and tells him he can finish it. After he does, she forces him to admit that he enjoyed it because it was an Indirect Kiss.

In an episode of Urusei Yatsura, Moroboshi sells the face mask worn by a sick Lum, and every boy in the class queues up to enjoy an indirect kiss. They are promptly infected with Lum's cosmic germs.

Usui in Maid-Sama! teases Misaki by telling her they've had an indirect kiss after sharing an apple slice with her. In another instance, although the trope isn't specifically mentioned, it is clearly in mind when Usui puts his lollipop into Misaki's mouth before hugging her.

Junjou Romantica. When Usagi-san calls Misaki out on his inability to express his affections for Usagi, Misaki tries this- by kissing his own hand, then slapping it over Usagi's mouth, exclaiming "How's that for erotic?!"

In Shugo Chara! the Cat boy Ikuto starts eating the other side of Amu's ice cream cone (Much to her dismay).

When Chiharu offers Kyo a drink from his water bottle in Girl Got Game, she realizes it's an Indirect Kiss and nervously prepares to drink . . . then Hamaya grabs it from her hands and takes a drink himself.

Koharu No Hibi: Creepily invoked in the first chapter. Akira first spots that something is wrong with Koharu when she drinks the saliva out of his recorder. After the incident, she also starts keeping the bottles he's used, and insisted that he do the same with hers.

A creepy version exists in Flame of Recca. While eating and licking ice cream, Fuuko encountered Soukakusai and he proceeded to snatch the ice cream, lick it and consider it an indirect kiss. Note that Soukakusai is a creepy guy who hunts after women, especially those who refused him. Fuuko was horrified even before knowing that fact.

This trope is lampshaded in Beelzebub when the Best Couple Grand Prix features a challenge based on it involving drinking from the same bottle.

Pops up in K during a Flashback. When Yata Misaki loses at a video game he grabs Fushimi Saruhiko's drink and chugs almost all of it, then throws the bottle away. Suoh Mikoto catches it and drinks the rest. So Misaki shared an indirect kiss with Saruhiko and Mikoto with them both.

In one chapter of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Sakura jokingly offers Nozaki a bite from her candied apple, at that point having given up expecting anything romantic from him. Nozaki, being Nozaki, nonchalantly takes a bite. Cue Sakura going redder than the apple.

Parodied in Ojojojo. Haru wonders if Kawayanagi reading a book she read counts as an indirect touch. Also, the article she wanted him to read was about kissing.

In the anime adaptation of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions Yuuta is fed a tomato from chopsticks that Rikka was just using. Yuuta realizes just a second too late what he just did, and the entire class (every member of which was apparently watching the spectacle) applauds.

Abe from Occult Academy gets flustered when his crush wants to share some of her oyaki because of this.

Referenced in the first episode of Kimi to Boku when the boys are at the Tea Club. Yuki tries to avoid sipping the same part of the cup that Kaname did, which causes him to mention that Kaname likely doesn't want an indirect kiss. The others think Kaname actually wanted an indirect kiss from Yuki and call him "creepy" for it.

Fairy Tail: After saving Jellal with a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Kagura thinks she stole a kiss from Erza, so as an apology she kisses her to carry over the kiss. But since Erza doesn't know what's going on, she and everyone else is shocked and confused by that sudden kiss.

In a Princess Tutu fic, Fakir after taking a bite from an apple tosses it up to Ahiru who was sitting in a tree. She unwittingly takes the bite from the same place as he did, causing him to observe that they just did this. And coincidentally, making Ahiru to fall off the tree.

Fates Collide: When Cu Chulainn trips and breaks his coffee cup, Medb tries to invoke this by offering hers. Naturally, she gets mad when Glynda Goodwitch simply fixes his cup.

Films — Animated

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when the Prince visits her at the start of the movie, Snow White shyly runs up to a balcony, then kisses a dove and sends it to deliver the kiss to the prince.

In How to Train Your Dragon 2, Ruffnut forces one of these on Eret by kissing her hand and pressing it to his lips while he's pinned down, much to his disgust.

Films — Live-Action

Taken even further in The Searchers where the way Martha tenderly handles Ethan Edwards' coat show that her feelings run deeper than those appropriate to a married woman and her brother-in-law.

Black Widow (1987). The federal agent and the female serial killer she's investigating meet during a scuba-diving course where they practice mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This is the first sign of their Les YayFoe Romance Subtext.

In Rashomon, Tajomaru and Masako have a rather disturbing one — according to him, at least. They're struggling; she bites his arm, and he then lasciviously licks the bite.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. In a scene showing that the Horcrux is starting to mess with Ron's mind by making him think that Hermione prefers Harry over him, Ron glares suspiciously at the two as they share a bottle of water.

Near the end of the film of Trainspotting, Begbie orders Renton to give him a cigarette, and just stands there waiting with his mouth open until Renton puts it in his own mouth to light it, and then puts it in Begbie's. While this could just be a display of dominance and control (which is well within Begbie's character,) Word of God is that they imagined Begbie as an Armored Closet Gay, so this trope was certainly intended.

Invoked in the first Sin City film, when Marv can taste Wendy's lipstick on the cigarette she lit for him and finds it very distracting.

In 99 River Street, the protagonist's friend, Linda, flirts with the villain to keep him distracted. At one point, she uses his cigarette to light her own.

Live Action Television

As shown in the quote above. One episode of Alias has a one-shot villain who has a little crush on Sydney backwash into some bubbly and then force-feed her some.

The second episode of the Due South two-parter Mountie on the Bounty: Fraser gives Ray Kowalski air via mouth-to-mouth "Buddy Breathing" while underwater in a sinking ship. Although there is direct contact, this is still an Indirect Kiss, as the intent was the exchange of air rather than romance. Fraser calls it "standard procedure", and when Ray asks if anything has changed between them, Fraser assures him that no, it hasn't.

In Friends, Chandler buys Monica an engagement ring. Phoebe happens to be holding it when Monica walks in. To keep it out of sight, she quickly puts it in her mouth. When Monica leaves, she gives it back to Chandler who then has to hide it in his mouth too when Monica enters the room again. Once she leaves, Phoebe teases Chandler: "We're practically kissing."

Vanessa and Ethan regularly share cigarettes and occasionally what are implied to be spliffs in Penny Dreadful. Passing a spliff between each other was even a central part of a Ship Tease scene for the two.

Another variation is in Pushing Daisies. Ned and Chuck can't ever kiss directly because if any part of their bodies touch, Chuck dies permanently, so they kiss through cling wrap and hold hands through gloves.

A body-swapped variation occurs in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town on the show within a game 'Aaron Changes', when the main character Aaron and his girlfriend Erin change bodies. During band class, he thinks that her using his Recorder might be a form of indirect kissing.

In the UK TV series Cracker, highly observant (and highly annoying) psychiatrist Fitz is briefing the detectives, one of whom makes an ignorant comment in his area of expertise. Fitz immediately jumps down the man's throat for this...but a few seconds before that same detective had passed a drink to Fitz's love interest DS Penhaligon, who drank from the bottle without wiping the mouth first — just the kind of minor detail Fitz would notice.

In Being Human, Annie, a ghost, drinks from (or at least, puts her mouth on) a bottle her still-living ex-fiancé had just been drinking from, the implication being that this is as close as she can get to kissing him anymore.

In Episode 6 of Whites, Skoose plays Kiki's trumpet and they both point out that their spit is mixed together.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has a subtle one in the pilot, where John is eating out of a bag of potato chips. Cameron approaches him, they have a conversation, and when John remarks that she acts disturbingly like a real person, her response is to take a chip out of the same bag and eat it. Considering the direction that the series took regarding their relationship as it progressed, this is remarkably subtle.

Supernatural. In "Girl Next Door", a pre-teen Sam Winchester saves the Girl Next Doorfrom school bullies. She treats a head injury he received in the process by pressing a soda can on it, then she drinks from the can. From the grin on Sam's face at this point, he's aware of the subtext.

In Gran Hotel, Julio and Alicia cannot kiss in public because they are having a secret Interclass Romance. So, they share cigarettes and he remarks on how it is almost as if they are openly kissing.

Literature

A rather strange example of indirect sex occurs in John Donne's poem "The Flea". A man tries to get his girlfriend in the mood but she's having none of it. He pulls a tick/louse/some bloodsucking insect from his pubic hair and puts to her skin so that it feeds. He then argues that since their bodily fluids have now mixed in the tick it's like they've already had sex, so they might as well do it for real anyway, because it makes no difference. Needless to say, she squashes the tick.

Of course, this is also a prime example of Get Thee to a Nunnery, as the poem repeatedly mentions "sucking". Back in the day, the long "s" would have resembled an "f".

The Hero and Heroine give CPR to another character, and at one point they have to change because her arms are tired. She has a silent ironic laugh at the "parody of a kiss"

Done again and heartbreakingly in the same novel when the heroine decides to send the hero a physical letter rather than an electronic one because "it was as close to a touch as they could come."

This trope is explored at some length in Longus' Daphnis and Chloe, owing to the woeful sexual inexperience of the two titular characters. Being written in the 2nd century AD makes this, well, rather old.

In Kelley Armstrong's Exit Strategy, Jack smokes constantly while Nadia has quit smoking. Jack lets Nadia take puffs off his cigarette, since she won't smoke a full cig but she can rationalize sharing as not really smoking. Neither of them ever discuss it, but the third point in the love triangle notices and gets nasty towards Jack about it. After it's pointed out to her, Nadia is uncomfortable with the intimacy of sharing a cig.

Not a straight example of this trope, but possibly an early proto-form of it: in Rainbow Valley, Rosemary West can't help but notice that Rev. Meredith put his lips on the same spot of a tree-bark-cup that she did when she drank from it earlier, and thinks about how she was told that when that happened, the destinies of the two involved will be linked together...

In The Name of the Wind Kvothe and his love interest share an apple, which he explains is, "as close to kissing, if you've never done it before," or something to that effect.

In Midnight's Children, the narrator describes seeing a Bollywood movie that got around the conservative social conventions of the day by having the hero kiss an apple, then pass it to the heroine so that she can kiss the same spot. For the pre-teen narrator it ends up being more erotic than if they had simply kissed in the first place.

A version of the legend ofthe city of Ys mentions that Dahut-Ahès, the scandalous princess, makes her new-lover-of-the-evening drink from the cup she drunk from and bite from the fruit she bit from.

Invoked and averted in Noble House, where Quillan Gornt stubs out a cigarette given to him by his ex-mistress, because he does not want "the taint of her lips". When he said the relationship was over, he really meant it.

In one of the Left Behind books, a character wipes away a rogue cookie crumb from his girlfriend's mouth and then absent-mindedly licks it off his finger. The significance of this is discussed in a Slacktivist review;

"For our protagonists and readers who come from this no-touching-during-courtship subculture, Buck's actions during the Cookie Incident were bold, shocking, even risqué. Thumb to lip contact — that's third base! His thumb touched her mouth and then his own — that's almost like kissing, the sort of thing proper courtship says ought to be saved for the wedding night."

Lampshaded in The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. Alexander offers a cigarette to Tatiana, but she refuses as she doesn't smoke. A friend of Tatiana who suspects their Secret Relationship asks, "Are you sure you don't want it? It's been in his mouth."

In a cutscene in Disgaea 2, the party is surrounded by monsters and attempt to use a magic flute to distract them. Adell tries playing it first, but is proven to have no musical talent whatsoever, so Rozalin takes the flute from him and puts it to her lips — at which point she realizes the significance of this act. She then forcefully discards the flute into her servant's forehead. Axel later finds the flute and plays it, but this trope isn't mentioned.

In Season 2 of Batman: The Telltale Series, Harley Quinn playfully offers Bruce a slurp from a slushy she just drank, which makes "John Doe" (this universe's version of Joker) jealous. If Bruce accepts, John angrily takes the cup and finishes it himself.

Visual Novels

In the CLANNAD visual novel, the hopelessly shy Ryou takes a grain of rice off Tomoya's lips and eats it. When she realizes the implications, she gets so flustered that she runs away. If the player tries to go for her more confident twin sister Kyou, Ryou does the same thing a few days later, but doesn't mind at all, a hint that she is trying to act like Kyou.

Referenced by name during two separate instances in (P)lanets. In the first instance, the main character shares her half-eaten sandwich with a Love Interest; the second instance happens when a different love interest steals one of her half bitten rice balls.

Katawa Shoujo: in Rin's route, she and Hisao share a cigarette and Hisao thinks about how they're sharing indirect kisses.

Go! Go! Nippon! is a visual novel aimed specifically at Occidental Otaku who want to visit Japan, and as such has plenty of anime and manga tropes, including this one. The indirect kiss happens by sharing a drink with one of the two sisters who are hosting the protagonist.

Reika of Red String wonders if sharing a juice box can be considered an indirect kiss.

Western Animation

Beavis And Butthead once got kicked out of a lingerie shop because they went around touching all the crotches of the panties and insides of the bras, figuring all of them will eventually be bought and worn by hot chicks.

Averted in the Futurama episode "Roswell That Ends Well", in which a stereotypical 1950's diner has a sign on the door telling patrons, "One teen to a malt please."

In the Generator Rex and Ben 10crossover special, Holiday gives one to a comatose Agent Six by kissing the glass covering of his bed, close to his cheek.

In Adventure Time, Finn and Flame Princess use this by passing a rock back and forth, kissing it. Of course, they have to, considering Flame Princess' unstable state could cause the world to be destroyed if they get too romantic.

Well, that and the first real kiss they had burnt Finn's mouth.

Happens to Vlad Masters from Danny Phantom in "Maternal Instincts". "The Backwash Incident" is one of the reasons why he wants to kill Jack.

The Steven Universe episode "An Indirect Kiss" has the eponymous indirect kiss happen between Connie and Steven, when Steven trades the rest of his juice box to Connie in exchange for letting him try on her glasses. He even admits it's mostly backwash at that point. This would seem like a footnote to the episode, which is mostly about Steven trying to gain Swiss Army Tears, except it turns out that he actually has healing spit, which cures Connie's astigmatism.

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